MOUZ defeated Heroic 2-0 in the opening round of ESL Pro League season 16’s Group C following a close bout on Mirage and a breeze victory on Dust 2 today.
This was the first time MOUZ fans got to watch them play with the team’s newest addition Dorian “xertioN” Berman, the Israeli youngster who was promoted from the academy team at the end of August to replace Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras.
The roster change set the organization under fire in view of many CS:GO fans because Bymas had just helped the team qualify for IEM Rio Major Europe Regional Major Ranking (RMR). But xertioN was able to give fans a first glimpse of what he’s capable of after finishing the Heroic series as the highest-rated player in the server with 1.25 rating and a 48-36 K/D.
The clash on Mirage could have gone either way but it was MOUZ who claimed the victory by 16-14 thanks to a strong collective effort of Jon “JDC” de Castro, xertioN, Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás, and David “frozen” Čerňanský in the fragging department. Dust 2 on the other hand, was a far easier map for MOUZ. XertioN dominated Heroic from the get-go and helped his team win by 16-9 despite Heroic’s best efforts to come back in the second half.
Group C is one of the most competitive groups of EPL season 16 because it features ENCE and Astralis, who are heavy hitters like MOUZ and Heroic. The opening round will carry on with Astralis vs. Complexity at 9am CT and close with ENCE vs. HEET at 12:30pm CT.